ATF makes it clear: Even legal marijuana users can't buy guns

By Gillian Graham. January 27th, 2017

The federal government is stepping up its efforts to keep guns out of the hands marijuana users, even as legal use of the drug is spreading around the country.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives long has prohibited gun and ammunition sales to unlawful users of marijuana, citing a risk of "irrational or unpredictable behavior." Now, the federal agency has added a warning to Form 4473 making it clear to anyone applying for a permit to buy a gun that marijuana remains illegal under federal law and using it means you cannot buy a gun, despite laws in Maine and a growing number of other states that allow medical and recreational use of the drug.

The new language, added last week to forms filled out by gun buyers in Maine and nationwide, has raised concerns that the government is unfairly denying cannabis users their Second Amendment right to bear arms. And it has renewed calls from medical and recreational marijuana advocates for a change in federal law to catch up with the country's changing views on marijuana.

Maine is a state with a deep tradition of gun ownership. More than half of Maine adults -- 55 percent -- surveyed in a Portland Press Herald poll of voters last October said they owned at least one gun.
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Views on Marijuana vary, but this is a substance that has proven to have genuine medicinal value for some conditions, leaving aside its 'recreational' use. It does seem that labeling this as a Schedule I drug is the crux of the problem, which these days could be regarded as outdated and needs changed. If medicinal use of the drug is regarded as presenting a behavioral risk then how come alcohol is not classed the same way - a long abused substance itself! What about legitimate users of pain control medications which often contain Schedule 1 ingredients - these people are not off limits for gun ownership. It's all about 'gun control', again.